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Several ways. First, infrared imaging. You get infrared telescope, you can ID things by how they look. Second, spectrum. Different objects give off IR radiation in different parts of spectrum, depending IIRC on their temperature and material characteristics. You get a match, you get ID...

Modern IR sensors IIRC can detect temperature differences of 1-2 degrees Celsius, so railgun projectile would be rather detectable...

Speaking of, Javelin can be used against low-flying helicopters? Is it limited to hovering helicopters?

It is not really shocking when you know what was going on. First, Germany was collapsing. Nazis were socialists, and they did what socialists do the best - run the economy into the ground. Hitler's "economic miracle" was unsustainable, and to survive, Germany had to either abandon socialism, or...

Serbia in 1991. Idea was to quickly defeat and partition Croatia with the help of Serb rebels in Croatia. But the offensive stalled at Vukovar and Dubrovnik/Herzegovina, and so we got the protracted war we did get. Almost exact scenario as war in Ukraine, in fact.

Carpathian mountains are a good defensive line, as is Danube.

First time I've heard of it.

Yes, but I don't think there was ever a possibility of Russia conquering Anatolia.

Zagros Mountains were fine, and Iran actually had good defensive geography, it is just that they weren't able to exploit it. In fact, Anatolia and Iran are similar in terms of geography, IIRC. And while Taurus mountains were a good defensive barrier, Arabs still penetrated it with regularity...

Yeah, it was basically perfect defensive barrier.

Eh, a lot of reasons. 1) Political stability. While war between the Byzantine and Sassanid Empires had devastated both sides, Byzantines had had an uninterrupted continuity of government. Sassanid Empire meanwhile had been left with rulers with no political legitimacy, leading to a series of...

Precisely my point - designation is dependant primarily on intended usage. And that usage then leads to certain characteristics. Actually, they didn't. And I never said my example is a strict rule, but if you look at most designs, it does apply. In the UK, infantry tank was basically heavy...

Except even a question of what is a tank is related less to technical characteristics than it is to doctrine and usage. Read these for details: https://acoup.blog/2022/05/06/collections-when-is-a-tank-not-a-tank/ https://historyandwarfare.wordpress.com/2022/05/19/what-is-a-tank/ A vehicle with...

Personally, I classify tanks by role, not by weight. Yes, Panther weighted as much as a heavy tank (and had major issues because of that), but its role and utilization were those of a medium tank. It wasn't a heavy breakthrough tank in the vein of Tiger, IS series or Pershing. Rather, its role...

Yeah, I am aware of that. But how much of that was due to the design and how much due to production? For example, Tiger II tanks had armor that was brittle, prone to cracking and spalling... but then again, Panther was unnecessarily complex, especially its engine and gear box.

Tiger wasn't that problematic for its original purpose, considering it was designed to be an assault tank and thus not expected to go for long distances. Panther, though, was a medium tank. So its flaws - while similar to Tiger - were much worse. It was difficult to maintain, had too complex of...

I think it might come back to what I wrote: terrain and strategic mobility. If you need to have reliable fire support in something like Afghanistan, Alps or Dinarides, well, self-propelled howitzers will simply not do. Not much mobility or scoot-and-shoot to be had when you are constrained to...

Well, yeah. But it is also much more strategically and operationally mobile (try loading SPGs on a helicopter or a mule), easier to camouflage, and more resilient to counterbattery fire if it actually hits (SPG is less likely to be hit in the first place, but a dug-in towed piece is basically...

Croatia has far more towed artillery than it has self-propelled artillery: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_equipment_of_the_Croatian_Army#Artillery France has much more self-propelled artillery than towed artillery, but it does have 12 towed howitzers - though it seems to be getting rid...

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